Courtesy: UEFA.com


Futsal giants prepare for Elite round draw

Monday 15 September 2008

by Paul Saffer

Holders MFK Viz-Sinara Ekaterinburg and the other three top seeds come into the UEFA Futsal Cup in November's Elite round and they will discover their opposition when the draw is made on Friday in Nyon.

Contenders
Ekaterinburg, 2007 winners MFK Dinamo Moskva, two-time champions Interviú Madrid and last season's semi-finalists Kairat Almaty have been joined the the next stage by 12 qualifiers who came through the Main round which concluded on Sunday. Among those are 2005 winners Action 21 Charleroi, 2004 runners-up SL Benfica, competition newcomers KMF Ekonomac Kragujevac of Serbia and the sole Preliminary round survivors, Slovenia's KMN Gorica.

Draw procedure
There will be four groups in the Elite round, each containing one of the top seeds. Two will contain one Main round winner and two runners-up, and the remaining pair will have two first-place finishers and one club who ended in second. Teams who were in the same Main round group cannot meet, and nor can the four mini-tournament hosts Ekaterinburg, Charleroi, Benfica and MNK Nacional Zagreb, though that does not effect their respective seeding.

Final four
The four groups will be played in the period 8-16 November, and the first-placed teams will progress to the final four scheduled around the last weekend of April. The hosts will be picked from the qualifying quartet to follow in the footsteps of 2007 home side ElPozo Murcia FS and last season's selected club Dinamo.


2008/09 UEFA Futsal Cup Elite round entrants:

Seeds (bye to Elite round)
MFK Viz-Sinara Ekaterinburg (RUS)*
MFK Dinamo Moskva (RUS)
Interviú Madrid (ESP)
Kairat Almaty (KAZ)

Main round winners
Group 1: SL Benfica (POR)*
Group 2: Luparense Calcio A5 (ITA)
Group 3: Action 21 Charleroi (BEL)*
Group 4: FC Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)
Group 5: FK Era-Pack Chrudim (CZE)
Group 6: Araz Naxçivan (AZE)


Main round runners-up
Group 1: KMN Gorica (SVN)
Group 2: KMF Ekonomac Kragujevac (SRB)
Group 3: ACS Odorheiu Secuiesc (ROU)
Group 4: MNK Nacional Zagreb (CRO)*
Group 5: Hapoel Ironi Rishon Lezion (ISR)
Group 6: Slov-Matic Fofo Bratislava (SVK)

*Elite round hosts





Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com